Glyn Schofield fortunate not to face 'hanging judges' of old

Fortunately for jockey Glyn Schofield, old-time penalties are not applied to questionable rides.

Schofield was recently suspended for five weeks for failing to take all reasonable and permissible measures on Number One Gun in the ATC Membership on Sale Now Handicap over 1400 metres at Randwick's Kensington circuit on December 20. Some say that by leading by so far, Schofield, with bold tactics, endeavoured to steal the race, though others maintain the hectic tempo he set was more kamikaze.

Even champions can have an off day and make the wrong judgment in a difficult situation. Usually they are fall guys for bad or wayward mounts but to what degree of competence are punters entitled?

Take Darby Munro, for instance. Possibly Australia's greatest jockey, Munro was in 1948 suspended for two years over the run by Vagabond in the Burwood Handicap on Caulfield Cup day. The owner and trainer had their appeals upheld but Munro's penalty remained.

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''In hindsight, he seems to have been unjustly treated after a canny ride on a most difficult horse,'' reported From Go to Whoa: A Compendium of the Australian Turf by Peter Pierce with Rhett Kirkwood.

The suspension cost Munro the chance to ride in England in 1952, supposedly on clearance grounds, though the black mark on his reputation was probably more to blame for the refusal. More recently, in 1988, Jim Cassidy was disqualified for 12 months concerning his navigation on Cruising, which raced for seasons later in South Australia but never won a race subsequently.

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Perhaps the Schofield race has most in common with the Stripper case in 1982. AJC stewards, led by John Schreck, deemed Stripper, owned by the Inghams - Big Jack, an AJC committeeman and mammoth punter, and brother Bob - had made the pace a cracker, for himself anyway, in a Randwick Welter. Jockey John Duggan and trainer Theo Green were suspended for three months over what was then called ''the running and handling'' of the galloper. Appeals by them were dismissed.

Schofield, too, has appealed against his suspension incurred under Australian racing rule 135(b). Stewards reported ''after crossing to lead at the 1000 metres and with the pace extremely fast, he failed to make a concerted effort to restrain Number One Gun to a more sustainable pace … Such omission by Schofield resulting in Number One Gun setting a pace between the 1000m until passing the 600m which was so fast that it was detrimental to the gelding's chance of sustaining its effort and being given full opportunity to win …

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''After passing the 600m to the 400m when leading the field by some six lengths and with the pace extremely fast, he applied pressure to his mount to expend more effort by commencing to ride Number One Gun along with his hands when it was reasonable and permissible for him to have ridden the gelding more conservatively by holding up his mount …''

Stewards considered Schofield's unblemished record ''in relation to this type of offence''. The penalty took into account the suspension encompassed early autumn group events, another cherry given to the modern-day jockey. Once upon a time a jockey did the crime and served the time regardless of the earning opportunities they would miss.

Alas, Schofield follows the Serge Lisnyy suspension on a similar charge. Lisnyy also went too fast in a Kensington sprint last year and was outed for a month.

A three-kilo-claiming apprentice, Lisnyy is still learning the trade while Schofield would not be out of place matched against the best in the world.

Regarding Lisnyy, sectional time summaries at the inquiry indicated his mount, Calming Influence, travelled from the start to the 600m 1.75 seconds (10 lengths) faster than the average for the 10 fastest times from the 1300m start to the 600m in the past 13 years on the Kensington track. Between the start and the 800m Calming Influence went 10.4 lengths faster than the benchmark for the distance and between the 800m and the 400m 10.1 lengths faster.

However, at the early inquiry into the Schofield effort, sectional times revealed Number One Gun ''had gone through its first 1000m in 56.62 seconds, being .02 outside the course record for 1000m''. Evidence was tendered that ''Number One Gun ran the first 800m in 3.22 seconds (20 lengths) faster than the average for all events conducted over 1400m on a good track since the Kensington's reopening last October.''

The jury of public opinion was divided over the Schofield strategy, with those in favour pointing out the catch-me-if-you-can tactics employed on Vo Rogue by Cyril Small. Vo Rogue was a great front-runner while the brilliance of tearaway Kencella, a stablemate of Number One Gun trained by John O'Shea, at Rosehill last Saturday was also mentioned in support of Schofield. Still, despite being a big leader Kencella ended his 1100m with a final 600m in 33.36 so earlier exertions hardly played havoc with his finish.

Anyway, Schofield goes into an appeal situation much more agreeable than those facing Munro, Cassidy and Duggan because the system is far more humane than under the former race club ''hanging judges'' who heard theirs.